Microfluidic inkjet control method

Abstract

A microfluidic inkjet control method, by adjusting the driving waveform of the print head, including intercooling waveform and pre-heating waveform, to reduce the satellite droplets produced accompany the main ink droplets during the inkjet printing process. After entering the parameters, the control method uses a print head module with nozzles with adjustable rotating angle and calculates the needed nozzle sequence and appropriate time delay to control the print head module and determine the operation of each nozzle. This achieves the goal of printing different types of elements.

1. A microfluidic inkjet control method, by adjusting driving waveform of a print head to increase stability and reduce satellite drop occurrence of ejected ink droplets from said print head, the method comprising the steps of:
 setting a driving energy, which is between a lower critical driving energy and an upper critical driving energy, when the driving energy applied to said print head is greater than the lower critical driving energy, the ink droplets are ejected, when the driving energy applied to the print head is greater than the upper critical driving energy, the ink droplets ejected from said nozzle start to break and become incomplete; 
 providing more than one preheating waveform, the driving energy of the preheating waveforms being less than the lower critical driving energy; 
 providing a main driving waveform, driving energy of said main driving waveform is between said lower critical driving energy and said upper critical driving energy, the driving energy of the preheating waveforms ranging from ½ to 1/20 of the driving energy of the main driving waveform; and 
 inserting more than one time intervals with driving energy greater or equal than 0 that divides said main driving waveform into more than one waveforms to execute intercooling.